Tagrest

The three prerequisites for optimal physical fitness is exercise, diet, and sleep. Of all the three variables, sleep often gets neglected by most fitness fanatics.

The importance of sleep cannot be overemphasized in any training regime. It is an essential factor that affects both your diet and your workout performance. For those who don’t know, sleep helps to keep your hunger hormones in check and help with your cravings and appetite.

Inadequate sleep or sleep deprivation has lots of consequences on individuals. Folks who sleep poorly at night, end up gaining as much as 38d calories on a daily basis than people who get adequate sleep. Also, inadequate sleep can also affect your immune system, and that means there is an increased likelihood that you may fall sick, become injury prone, and even have mild to severe amnesia.

Nobody is above the repercussions of inadequate sleep, not even the best fitness coach or trainer. In as much as you are a fitness coach and you are taking care of your clients, it is even more important you focus on your health as well so you can give your best every time.

This guide is created explicitly for fitness pros, strength coaches, and trainers, in a bid to assist them with their sleep challenges. Below are some of the reasons why fitness pros and coaches don’t do so well with sleep

• Too much coffee and occasional booze Fitness trainers are often one of the busiest set of persons one could find. In order for them to get through their busy schedule, they often depend on caffeine and occasional booze to keep them awake all day.

Everybody knows caffeine and sleep don’t work together, and in as much as it keeps you active all through the day, t can deprive you of sleep not just for a night alone but as high as 3 to 7 nights depending on your body system.

Limit your caffeine intake, and if you need a pick me up, you can head outside and get some fresh air and sunlight.

• Crazy working hours Several fitness trainers have crazy working schedules that see them work from as early as 4 am in the morning to as late as 10 pm in the night. Most trainers would say time is money, hence why they need to ramp up the extra work ours. But then again, it isn’t worth it if all the money you make, you end up spending it to treat yourself.

A simple solution will be to utilize the free time you usually get in the midafternoon to sleep. This time, clients don’t often come around for their training, you can pick up a quiet spot or a sleeping room and take a nap. Do this continuously, and your body will adapt to it.

• The superman feeling Well, you think you are superman, so you can go all the distance by not sleeping adequately, well spoiler alert you are not. Given the nature of the job you do and the amount of energy you utilize, you can’t carry out your daily routine on just a 4-hour a night sleep. You would only compound problems for your body in no so distant time.

It is recommended that you sleep a minimum of 8 hours every night (or close to that number) for you to function effectively and still maintain optimal health. For you to be your best you need adequate sleep, even Superman gets to sleep adequately despite his busy schedule saving the world.

It Pays to Do Less: Why Rest is as Important As A Work Out

Some people think that in order to reach their health goals faster, they will work out for as long as they can. However, pushing yourself too much could put you in bad shape, or worse, injure you. Of course, I’m not telling you to cancel your gym membership, or totally quit working out. What’s important is that you allot days for exercising and days for rest.

Here are some reasons why rest is as important as a working out:

Rest makes you stronger

Engaging in strenuous workouts like weight lifting, cross-fit training, or long distance running can cause some small tears in the muscles. Resting is important to help give your body the time to recover and repair muscles. Doing this will help your muscles grow stronger and will even prevent you from having injuries.

You may seem happy during the early stages of your workout routine because you’re experiencing weight loss. That’s because your body is in the phase of adjusting to the new workout that you’re doing. However, if you push yourself too hard and keep on doing the same exercise everyday, your body will eventually adapt to the routine and result to a weight loss plateau. To avoid this, it’s important that you have rest intervals in between your training duration so that you will continue to lose weight.

Over training can drain you mentally and physically

Over training can cause the body to produce hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that can suppress your appetite. These hormones will also make you feel both mentally and physically exhausted which is detrimental to your overall health. Always remember, the balance of exercise, diet, and rest is the great combination to be healthy.

Training without rest can cause restlessness

Although studies have shown that working out can give you a boost in your mood (a runner’s high), training too hard may actually have a reverse effect. When you push yourself too hard during training and you neglect to rest, your nervous system goes into an overdrive, causing you to become restless, feel anxious, and lose focus.

Rest gives you more motivation to work out

Taking time off from your exercise gives you more motivation to go back to training because you have something to look forward to. In contrary, skipping rest days and slaving yourself at the gym may make you feel exhausted and you will just end up feeling burnout from training. Again, a perfect balance of rest and workout is what you need to effectively achieve your health goals.

In order to get the most out of your physical training, here are some of the things you should do to fully rest and recover from your workout :

Get adequate sleep—meaning, seven to ten hours. It’s best if you sleep before 12mn to have a quality sleep.

Hydrate—drink lots of water during workout and rest days. Drinking water helps the body to maintain its energy, helps you recover faster and improves your energy.

Eat nutritious food—your food choices are important so that your body remains in its optimal state. Eat loads of fruits and veggies, and other type of foods that compliment your workouts and would help your body recover.

Take a day off—having one or two days off from your training will help your body recover faster and will prevent you from having injuries.

Even though you feel like you can go more further on your training, it’s best that you listen to your body when it tells you that it needs rest. Do yourself a favor and don’t push yourself too much,take rests in between to see better results in your workouts.